News

Co-production and the People and Communities Fund

With a key focus on building community capacities through co-production, the People and Communities Fund (PCF) addresses two priorities: tackling poverty and social inclusion by supporting local Community-based Organisations.

A range of different thematic areas and activities are funded, including training, advice, community services, employability, mentoring and volunteering. The fund aims to achieve lasting change and improve lives for disadvantaged people.

In April 2017, the Scottish Government commissioned EKOS Ltd and Avril Blamey and Associates to undertake a research study exploring the co-production process and its results.

For this purpose they applied some of the key principles of Realist Evaluation but also other evaluation techniques working directly with 12 PCF funded projects.

The following two videos show some of the approaches that were used to assess the co-productive approaches in local communities:

Part 1

Part 2

Research confirmed that the implementation theory and the logic model of the PCF Programme worked. The findings showed that provided a person-focused approach is used, co-production really can work to great effect.

PCF funding provided the space and time for community-based organisations to attend to the personal development needs of their communities and to work in close partnership with other partners.

Not all approaches of how co-production can be evaluated were presented. Please see the report for the detailed findings.